For Beginners: Parighasana (Gate Pose)

Gate Pose, an invigorating side bend, allows us to stretch the side body, expand the intercostal muscles, and deepen the breath.

By Barbara Kaplan Herring

Stretch both arms out to the sides, palms facing downward. In the front body, reach from your sternum through the chest muscles, lengthening along the biceps all the way into your thumbs. Be careful not to poke your rib cage forward. Feel the back body extend from the thoracic spine into the pinkies. Inhale and feel some lightness in the side body; exhale and bend at the waist, dropping the right palm down to the lower right leg and stretching the left arm up, palm facing downward.

Each time you inhale, grow a little longer through the spine into the crown of your head, reaching into all the fingers of the left hand. With each exhalation gently deepen your side stretch, allowing the right hand to move down the right leg toward the ankle and the left palm to stretch away from the left hip.

Now that you are in the pose, you can refine it. Instead of closing down the face and belly toward the floor, press your right thumb into the inner right leg to help you twist. Feel the right hip and the back right ribs move forward as the heart opens. Try not to have the left arm block your sight; rather stretch it past your ear and overhead. Breathe into the left rib cage, feeling the intercostal muscles expand. Know that you are also providing a nourishing stretch to the liver.

When you feel ready to come out of Parighasana, use the inhalation to lift your left arm straight up toward the ceiling, draw your spine back to vertical, and reach your two arms horizontally once again. With the next exhalation let the arms drop. When you do the pose on your second side, you will not only stretch the right side body and intercostals, you will also provide an opening to the stomach and spleen.

Side bending can feel very different on the two sides, especially for people who have scoliosis. Ribs, muscles, and organs constricted from everyday posture will receive a welcome elongation in Gate Pose. Just be sure not to go deeper than you can comfortably breathe or move.

After doing the pose once or twice, sit on a folded blanket or bolster to take several three-part breaths. Have you awakened your side body? Can you feel how your intercostal muscles help to lift the ribs as you inhale and then draw the ribs down as you exhale?

One definition The Random House Dictionary gives for "gate" is "any means of access or entrance." Practicing Gate Pose grants us access to improved breathing and a greater movement of prana, the universal life-force energy, throughout the body. With the side body awakened, our experience of wholeness and vitality increases.

Barbara Kaplan Herring teaches yoga and meditation in and around Berkeley, California. For information about her classes, audiotapes, and eight-week chakra workshops, feel free to contact her at harmonyyogastudio@comcast.net.

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